Gaming by:Oskuesko

                                                          GAMING!

What is gaming? Gaming is not only sitting at home playing video games  No, it’s so much more than that. Gaming can be big business for some people. In competitive level of gaming it can be your job. Can you believe it? Some people actually play games for living and earn more money than regular working person. For example a DotA 2 team called Invictus Gaming won a prize of  $1,000,000 (1 million dollars) by winning a tournament called The International.

Different types of games

Nowadays the main platforms for playing games are Playstation, XBOX, PC and phones. Each platform has its pros and cons. PC is easy to upgrade and keep up to date you can also buy games online so you don’t need to buy a CD to install the game. Console games are usually bought from stores in CD form. Games for phones are easy to use but their gameplay experience is not that good compared to consoles or PC.

A role-playing game (RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Role-playing games can be played online (MMORPG = Massively Multiplayer Online Role-playing game) or sometimes in real life in the form of LARP (Live Action Role-playing). Either way the player controls the character and decides how they want to play. For example World of Warcraft (WoW) is very popular MMORPG by Blizzard.

Then there are FPS (First Person Shooter) games in which players usually compete against each other in two teams. In FPS games player controls the character by seeing things like the character would see them. This way the game feels more realistic. The most popular FPS games are the series of Counter-Strike, Call Of Duty and Halo.

The most known MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena) games are Defense of the Ancient 2 (DotA2), League of Legends (LoL) and StarCraft2 (SC2). In MOBA, players compete against each other in an arena playing 5 vs 5. The map has two bases, one for each team. Bases are connected with three lanes and a forest between the lanes. A river separates both sides from each other. The player controls a single hero. Heroes have their own unique skills and meanings in the game. The main goal is to destroy the enemy’s base.

There are many other types of games but these three are the most common ones.

So everyone should be able to find a suitable game to meet their needs.

 The tournaments and LAN-events

LANs are great events for players to gather together and meet each other in real life. LANs are events where gamers go to one big place (for example, Hartwall Arena in Finland) just to play games or participate in competitions. LANs pretty much always have some kind of tournament. The tournament usually has online qualifiers where teams play best out of 3 games against each other and the best 3 teams will be invited to the LAN to play the grand final. One of the most known LANs is DreamHack. DreamHack is held twice a year: in the summer (DH summer) and in the winter (DH winter) and it’s the largest computer festival in the world. DreamHack usually has a tournament for DotA 2, CS:GO and LoL. The DreamHack winter 2012 had a prize pool of 2,000,000 SEK which is about 240,000€. The prize pool was mainly for League of Legends, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Defense of the Ancient 2. Other competitive games played were Starcraft 2, Quake Live, Heroes of Newearth and Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition. The tournaments in smaller LANs don’t contain huge prize pools but they usually are supported by gaming gear manufacturers such as SteelSeries, Alienware and Razor. If so, the prizes are usually gaming equipment such as keyboards or headsets. DH winter 2012 also had a world-famous hardstyle artist play a set there, Headhunterz.

Teams & organizations

Organizations have a squad for different games. For example, Natus Vincere (NaVi) is an Ukrainian organization which has a squad for DotA 2 and CS:GO. A squad usually consists of five players and each player usually specializes in a role they want to play. Sometimes there can be a sixth player who will replace a player if he’s missing. Organizations pay for the gamers to practice and they also can make money by streaming their gameplay or making YouTube videos. Some very popular LoL streamers can make up to $1,000 in an evening just by playing. The income comes from the adverts their stream has. If a team wins a tournament, usually 75% of the prize goes for the players and 25% for the organization. Companies also support organizations and provide them with gaming equipment. For example, SteelSeries supports NaVi and they’ve made a NaVi version of their very popular headset Siberia v2 (NaVi edition). These organizations also may have a gaming house for their players. Like NaVi, they’re going to get a gaming house in China. Then the players move to the gaming house to practice together. The gaming house has its own kitchen and whatever a regular home has. They have their own servants in the gaming house who make food and clean for them. The gaming houses also have their own gym and stuff like that. The gamers do sports as well, they don’t just play video games all day long.

Our gaming

We, Oskari and Esa, play DotA 2. We use Mumble to communicate so we can have more teamwork in our games. Oskari’s specialty is carry heroes which is the main DPS (damage per second) role. Esa plays support heroes which supports the carries and the whole team. We both play in different groups and have our friends with us.

I, Esa, sometimes play Counter-Strike: Global Offensive or Source and Left 4 Dead 2 (L4D2) with nickname Esko. L4D2 is a great game to play with mates. In L4D2, you run away from a horde of zombies shooting them and trying to get to a safe house.  My all-time favorite game is Heroes of Might and Magic 3. My favorite team is Fnatic which has a good DotA 2 squad.

Me, Oskari, usually just play DotA 2 with my friends. I also play Heroes & Generals which is a game about WW2. Sometimes when I’m bored I just watch streams and such. I use nickname Testo Monk in steam.

What does a person need to be happy in everyday existence?

Happiness is a curious thing. It can be found in the darkest places and times, but be absent from situations that you'd most expect to find it in. Though there are all kinds of books and guides to help you towards happiness, it's still hard to define a specific and unfailing recipe for happy life. In my opinion, that's not even entirely possible because different people will always find happiness in different ways.

Whether or not a person is happy in their everyday life can depend on many things. There is of course their personality, which plays a big part on how they see the world, how they react to the hardships of the life, and how easily they are satisfied with what they have. There are uncontrollable things that affect their lives and the amount of happiness they feel, such as depression and other illnesses. Sometimes people can be in absolutely hopeless situation where they simply cannot see any light ahead. Everyday life can be hard. Happiness can be hard to find.

However, I think that there are some things that can make one's everyday existence happier. These are somethings that I've discovered help me maintain happiness in my everyday existence:

I try to recognize small blessings and be thankful for them. Every once in a while I remind myself to look around and see the things that are good in my life and let myself feel happy about them. I'm a firm believer that even on bad days there must be some perks somewhere, I just need to find them. I'm not trying to say that wanting to succeed in your life and dreaming of your own mansion with a huge pool is a bad thing, on the contrary I think being ambitious is a good thing! To be truly happy in life, you'll need to do some work, but in everyday existence I think finding happiness on small things is more important.

Every day, I try to do something that matters to me. So that at the end of the day, I can say that the time hasn't been wasted. This can also be very simple things, like calling someone I hold dear or making an effort to study extra hard. These things make me feel like my day has been more meaningful, and that there is some meaning in my life.

And finally, I try not be too hard on myself. I try to notice when I'm bringing myself down too harshly, stop that train of thought and think about something positive instead. I try to remember that  I have people caring about me.

Like said, people find happiness in many different ways. These things that work for me may not work for you. So what I'd actually like to achieve here, is to make you think about what kind of things might make your everyday existence happier. This is only how I stay happy now, and how I'll hopefully stay happy in 2026 too.

-Sara

ICT in our lives - free time and school

Facebook, Instagram, Tumbrl, Blogger, Foursquare, Twitter, Linkedin... 

What makes social media such an extraordinary thing? Do we need any desk computers in ten years? Has the Facebook filled the huge hole in the life of shy people? What a great number of questions. In  the space of two years different types of social media have become important tools in everyday life, in working life and even in the school world. 

Sometimes I am wondering the purpose for using social media during the free time. All of sudden the each and everyone started to use Facebook. Hardly anyone writes letters nowadays. 

The youth has a need to be in online all the time and chat with friends. Being online 24h/7 is very stressful. If you go to the bed too early, it means you will miss something that everyone talks during next two weeks. It is a daily concern amongst the youngsters. The daily use of Facebook is not enough anymore. Instagram, a photo device which gives an opportunity to edit pictures and share them with other users by mobile; Foursquare, sharing the location; Twitter, “tweeting” everything needed very shortly, support sharing information and showing others what one is doing. A new phenomenon is a chat application called Whatsapp which gives an opportunity to be in touch with friends, sometimes too fast and easy.

The more we use social media at home the more we need to utilize it at school. For instance we have all kinds of blogs that are used beside schoolwork. I am happy that the school system is adopting  the possibilities of the social media even if very slowly. The variety of assignments makes for change! I am quite sure students won't write anything in a traditional way  after 5 or 10 years. Some teachers have a work profile in Facebook. My PE teacher has such a profile to be in touch with students who have accepted  the challenge of Physical Education diploma, great isn't? In English classes students have assignments like writing a film analysis  in the culture course blog. 

In my honest opinion people should have a break  sometimes and leave the mobile phone and the tablet computer on the desk for a few hours. It is entirely different to enjoy the spare time and be social for real, not in Facebook or in Whatsapp. 

I challenge all of you to try this at home and wherever you are hanging around. 

What does a person need to be happy in everyday existence

There are plenty of different things that person needs to be happy. Where do you live, what kind of weather there is, who do you live with, what kind of parents do you have and so on. For example here in Finland people are more depressed in the winter time, just because here isn't enough sunlight. Most of the highschool students here live with their parents and that's why it has a great importance whether you have nice parents or not. But in the end, the attitude is the thing. If your attitude sucks, it doesn't matter how nice parents you have or how big mansion do you live in.

1. Simple phrases as "thank you", "have a nice day" and "I care about you" are the easiest to forget
Sometimes it just feels so hard to say good things for your own parents and siblings. Believe me, the more you do it, the more easier it gets. We are used to get good treatment from our parents. But how often do we make the dishes for them or make their bed for them, as they had do for us for many years? Suprise your parents and do something nice for them, even when it's not mothers- or fathersday.

Most of us have at least one or two best friends. But the good friends aren't a selfevidence. They won't be with you forever if you don't tell them how much do they mean to you.

Not very big things. If you smile to the people, the people will smile you back.

2. Get out of your comfortzone
Choose a day when you do something in a different way that you have used to. If black is the only color you use in clothing, buy a blue or a brown coloured shirt. If you eat the same flavoured youghurt every morning, suprise your tongue and taste bananayoughurt instead of vanilla. And if you have time, walk to school instead of using bike. You don't have to do all of this at the same day, step by step.

3. Learn to name your feelings
If "irritared", "bored" or "tired" are the only feelings you know and you notice, it might not be bad to learn new words and adjectives. First, your friends doesn't want to hear every day what makes you angry and why you are bored, they also want to hear good things. If you don't have anything nice to say and you just have to say something, at least try some new words. Your friends will be suprised, and, maybe the most important thing; maybe you learn something new about yourself. Maybe you stop for a second and listen to yourself, maybe you notice that it isn't very interesting to hear the same things every day. Maybe you figure out what you maybe should change in your life if everything is just irritating and boring, or if you are tired every single day.

My point is that after all the only person who can make you happy is you. You just have to listen to yourself and look to the mirror.                                                                                                                                  
- Kaisla

Grand failure with the social media chat

Or rather, there was nothing grand about it.

We had agreed to use the TwinSpace chat to have a discussion or debate on the possibilities social media offer and on the dangers it poses.

We were online at the same time, Pori and Thionville. A few students were given usernames to TwinSpace so they could act as secretaries and write the opinions and arguments that the class would  produce in the chat. This way the chat would become clearer and more organised. To provide structure and a smooth flow of the process, the French students had prepared an  outline and questions; we were to be the ones responding.

However, technology let us down. Or then the teachers simply didn’t have good enough basic skills of using net browsers.  We could not see each other’s writing.

What happened at our end was that some tentative ideas were put forth by the Finnish students, with the teacher trying to direct the group to consider that social media actually is, and start considering its good and bad sides.  As we only saw what we had written in the blog, the chat gradually gave way to rather silly joking.

This blog entry is written by the teacher at the Finnish end, humbly recognising her own failure of organisation and planning. The students were unprepared, and at a loss what to do. They did not have a structure to work on.  They were left fumbling in the dark with no guiding light.

But one always learns. One interesting observation was that this generation of Facebook users did not have a clear conception about what social media is. It seemed that they thought that Facebook or Twitter, which are simply some services, or  businesses, equalled social media. The principle was not understood or known. And this is interesting. We live in a world of easy-to-use technological services, and little analyse what we do, why we do it, and where they will lead us.

Therefore a debate on this issue would  not only be fascinating, but educational, even essential.

We are very much looking forward to the French students writing about their experience in planning the chat session.

Comments on this article, or comments on social media and criticism on their widespread use,  are welcome.
And  check the social media debate page. 

Starting the spring term

It is -13 degrees in Finland today. In six months it will be very different and summer. It is in human nature to look forward and imagine future days. From winter to summer and from the present to the  future.

The future will be a different place, they say. For inspiration, check this BBC-link. It is an infographic on possible future developments.

It is now time to kick our project to a proper start as spring term is in full swing. The Finnish students have been invited to a meeting tomorrow to talk about the project and plan how to proceed. We need to assign roles and  duties and create a timetable.

The first task for the spring term  has already been set by Mme Kollmeier: we are to take sides on social networks and write about the benefits and drawbacks to be always connected and always online. We will consider Facebook, Twitter and other much-used sites and weigh the pros and cons of mobile access and the ubiquitousness of the web.

Business English - a special course in Porin Lyseo

Business English

•  by  Leevi Lehtonen & Walter Dahlberg

Course objectives: - Learn new vocabulary - Adjust your behavior to different business situation - Have a research about business cultures in different countries - Improve our social skills - Improve our English understanding
Examples: - We have read many business dialogs and texts - We have watched lots of different advertisements - We have done CV:s and application letters
Here you can find more information: Business English in Moodle